Dark stool??

i never really look at stool colour in my cats because typically they are covered in litter. But
Sidney had some stuck to him yesterday, and it was very, very dark, and I don’t want to stay sticky, but I don’t know.
They are formed, but I checked today and it’s almost black again.
I called the vet to ask about checking for blood but all their stool sample does is check for parasites.
Can the switch to low carb cause this? I’m a little worried. He has always been on wet, but only made the low carb switch the last three weeks or so.
He got off his 14 day dose of Zenequin on the 23rd.
Thanks for any insight.

 

I don't know how low carb could have anything to do with it. Black stool usually indicates blood further up the GI that has already been digested, like it is coming from somewhere between the mouth and the stomach, whereas bright red would mean it was closer to the end of its "route".

In my experience, getting bloodwork would be useful to check for anemia. The only time we've had black stool was when a cat was found to have a bleeding ulcer which caused his anemia, but some carafate/sucralfate cleared it up. There's more causes and solutions, I am sure, but I don't know that getting the actual poo checked for blood is useful since I would think blood would be one of the only natural causes of black stool (?). I am sure a google of it could help, but I wanted to give only first hand experience.

I'm sorry, I haven't followed your entire story. What kind of infection did Sidney have that he was getting Zenequin?

 

Feeding a raw diet can result in blackish stools.
Zenequin could possibly have caused a slight bleed in the gastrointestinal tract.
I remember Sheba had to stop it because of pink vomit.

You could try some slippery elm bark powder to see if that helps. That will coat the alimentary tract.
Mix 1 teaspoon SEB powder with 1/2 cup cold water in a saucepan.
Whisk with a fork.
Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes stirring all the time.
It will thicken.
Let it cool and store in the frig in a jar for up to a week.
Give a teaspoon twice a day with food.
Make sure you keep it 2 hours away from any medications as it coats the stomach and will inhibit the absorption of the meds.

 

Thx Bron, I didn’t know that about a raw diet. I’ll file that away.

 

The feces need to be tested for occult blood. For Idexx that is test 705. You can enter that test number here:
https://www.idexx.com/en/veterinary/reference-laboratories/tests-and-services/#directory

 

Rhubarb has a much darker stool since starting wet food. Her labs are all good, and when she got into dry, it lightened up

 

My other cat is having the same stool now, so i think it’s diet related.